Bulls' Zach LaVine Denies Having Players-Only Meeting After Season Opener vs. Thunder

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine denied reports of a players-only meeting held last Wednesday after the Bulls' season-opening 124-104 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

"A team meeting is when guys collectively call themselves in and talk about things," LaVine said, per Yahoo Sports' Vincent Goodwill. "We didn't have a team meeting, I think it's a basketball conversation."

During the game, head coach Billy Donovan and center Nikola Vučević were seen having a heated conversation on the bench.

After the loss, Donovan told reporters he was asked to leave the locker room so players could "handle conflict" between themselves, per the Chicago Tribune's Julia Poe.

"You get your ass kicked on the first day and we're having conversations from top to bottom," LaVine said. "If we don't want the coaches in there while we are talking, that's not a team meeting, it's players talking amongst ourselves. I don't know if coach got that misunderstood or not."

The 2-3 Bulls are looking to improve to .500 on the season on Friday at home against the Brooklyn Nets.

They will have to do that without Lonzo Ball, who will likely miss the entire season after undergoing a third surgery on his left knee.

Ball's absence, alongside Vučević's frustration and DeMar DeRozan's pending unrestricted free agency, means the season start has led to rising tensions in Chicago.

Despite those concerns, Donovan told reporters after the Game 1 loss that there was "nothing personal" about being asked to leave the room, per ESPN's Jamal Collier.

"I'm not going to sit there and say that it was bad, like people were tearing up the locker room," Donovan said after the loss. "It was nothing like that. They were in there talking. I walked in and they said, 'Hey, Coach, can we talk?' I said sure and I left.'

"These guys do care, and they want to be better, but they know there's habits they've got to change, and they've got to break. And they're talking about trying to do that collective as a group."

The Bulls currently sit among the bottom seven NBA teams in rebounds (42.6) and points (105.4) per game, while ranking second to last in average assists (19.6). One of the team's three losses came despite LaVine putting up a career-high 51 points against the Detroit Pistons.

It's not how the Bulls wanted to start the season, but LaVine and his coach remain insistent that it has not yet led to a break between Donovan and his team.